In Need

[Jason T. Radice]

You’re going to want to bump that mulch thickness up to a minimum of 3″. 2″ doesn’t do anything but suck moisture off of the top layer of soil. 3″ is minimum for weed supression. 

 

You’ve got a good start on it from the posts here, but I agree you should be investigating why these things exist, and how they got the numbers. There are tons of other notes, but I tend to use specifications, as a spec book take precedent over general notes on a plan. Hopefully your instructor will thrill you and excite you into the world of spec writing. Ask him also about performance specs…

[Zach Watson]

haha, yes we have entered the wonderful world of spec books.  We only have to use one format for our project but have have already had to do some research on the CSI, DOT, and a local MAG (Maricopa Association of Governments) format.  Oh so many things to learn about construction and so little time in school to learn it.

 

Zach

[Wyatt Thompson, PLA]

Can you call the City and ask them for an example set of plans? That should be public information, maybe even available for download on their web site – check the Engineering or Public Works departments. If that doesn’t work, it might be a good opportunity to introduce yourself to a firm that does local work and see if they could share their copy of the city’s standards with you.

[Jason T. Radice]

Other than being aware of it, school is not the place to learn that anyway. Appreticeship in practice is where. It takes a while, and learning the diff types (mostly CSI or Masterspec in the commercial world) won’t really occur until you have to put a package together for an employer (which most already have standard specs already chosen ) or if you are a control freak like me and just HAVE to go through and change stuff by using new materials, bumping up the concrete spec, or changing construction methods from how they did stuff when they rebuilt London after the great fire in 1666. You will learn to LOVE specs and CODES!!!!! Have fun!

[Zach Watson]

haha, thanks, Jason.  You make is sound so exciting, I just want to jump in right now!!

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I appreciate the notion that students should not be spoon fed …. but, let’s be honest here. In a world of smart phones, Google, and downsized offices, which would be that course of action taken by the people signing the payroll checks? Cut/paste/alter or start from scratch?

 

He is doing what is in fact the way it is done these days. We might see it as lazy on the one hand, but it is also extremely efficient on the other hand. Not wasting time is an important quality in an employee and in life in general.

 

Many of you are not posting anything for fear of it being recognized by whomever you snagged your notes from. The fact is that almost all of these notes look the same anyway and whomever you snagged your notes from snagged them from someone else.

 

Question: What is the difference between asking here or going to Town Hall and getting it there?

Answer: several hours.  …. unless everyone is too proud to help.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you Andrew. I would have done the same thing if I were a student. What Zach did was the “smart” thing to do. My initial comment was directed at us pros. Like I touched on before, a person can learn a lot about the profession by doing good old fashioned research. It happens to me all the time. I go to the library to find information about “A” and I walk out of there with knowledge about “A”, “B” and “C”. Besides I think an LA student would learn more thumbing through old drawing files and books than she/he ever could doing Google searches. There’s good stuff in those books that will never be put on the internet.

 

Besides they at least need to develop enough hustle to go out and snag the right notes. Even though it was probably mostly through osmosis, I ended up learning most of what I know from the contact I had with the people I snagged my notes from.

 

To answer your question, by going to Town Hall a student can make the right connections with the right people along with learning something. That doesn’t happen when us pros spoon feed it to them. Getting an education is so much more than ace-ing classes in the most efficient fashion.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Agreed

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